Quote:
Originally Posted by Sightseek
I don't think you can judge a horse by photo -- particularly with race horses you want to see how they move and their character.
The TOBA has an informative series on conformation.
http://www.toba.org/owner-education/conformation.aspx
After awhile most people form preferences and have ideals in the kind of runner they are looking for. For example, I don't like the light-frameness of Songandaprayers and am particular about necks, pasterns and feet. You have to approach a horse with a goal in mind too -- are you looking for a win early 2 yo, a Classic horse, a turf horse, etc. |
Sightseek has it exactly right.
Some people's 'definite no' might actually be somebody elses' 'yes please'. It really depends on what type of horse you are looking for, and the long term plan for him/her.
I always find that the most interesting conformation 'defect' is being back of the knee. Personally I do not like it, and won't go near a yearling who is back of it's knee. However, one of the best racehorses and sires (danehill) was infact back of his knees and often threw that onto his progeny, and it hasn't stop them either.
You will often find that certain sire lines will throw certain issues. Storm Cat being one of the best examples. He and most of his sire sons are quite offset (usually in their near fore, correct me if I'm wrong). Now in the early days this would have put people off, but once he and his progeny could run and run fast even with those knees, people decided to pay less attention to this conformation defect.
Then you come to simple things like quality, and if the horse is good looking and this more or less comes down to opinion. For example, I believe a horse like Super Saver is a stunning looking horse, with heaps of quality.
Like Sightseek I'm not a fan of light framed horses, or horses who lack bone.
I'm more forgiving with horses who have long pasterns, especially in europe where they race on a more forgiving surface. However, i'm a little more harsh on long pasterns in both North America and Australia. The only problem being, that these horses are often exceptional walkers - a personal must.
The big thing for me is feet. "no feet, no horse" beiing one of the most important phrases to remember. I spend a lot of time looking at the feet when inspecting yearlings.
It's almost impossible to find a 100% correct horse these days, whether that's because of how we are breeding or whether it's because we are becoming more criticial on conformation, I'm not sure.